Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) Read online

“We left all our stuff at Astra,” I said. “Including the elemental rings, the Mirror Arcane, and Mom’s thistle box. We’re going to have to get them.”

  “I’m not sure what kind of hold the demons have on the place,” said Lanca. “But Public is formidable on its own, and I don’t believe Martha was pleased when the demons took the place over. She has a hard enough time having to put up with students.”

  I snorted. Martha was Public’s middle-aged personification of itself. She was a busybody, she didn’t understand paranormal emotions, and she was extremely powerful. I didn’t give the demons much of a chance against her. She was also a ridiculously good baker.

  “Does that mean my friends are alright?” I asked hopefully, thinking of Dacer.

  “Yes,” said Lanca, nodding. “I believe they are.”

  I took a deep breath, feeling somewhat reassured for my college in the short term, but still in fear for the paranormal world as a whole. I couldn’t help but see Vampire Locke in the distance as I looked out the windows of the warm and peaceful room.

  Lanca turned to follow my gaze. “It’s hard,” she said. “They didn’t have an evil place of their own, so they took my place. Sometimes, when I’m tired, I’d like to just give it up and go find a place to live in peace. But it’s family. It’s the Blood Throne, and it is mine.”

  “I think you’ll get it back,” said Ricky. “I’m sure you will.” He walked forward and pressed his nose against the glass.

  Now, talking with Lanca in that lush room, we came back to the big picture.

  “Why do they hate us so much? What did we ever do to the demons, or what was it you said they’re called now? Nocturns?” Ricky asked.

  “Because hate is easier than love. Anger is easier than acceptance, and retaliation is easier than letting go.”

  “You’d think Charlotte would be held on a pedestal, not disrespected, ignored, threatened, and arrested. Paranormals fear the hard fight, just like everyone else. Standing up for what you believe, even if it’s right, makes you a target,” said Vital, his anger on my behalf clear.

  Ricky still looked skeptical. I had tried to play down the importance of the elementals, but Ricky was smart. He could tell from my stories that the way I had been treated wasn’t right, and he didn’t understand why.

  “Look,” said Vital, “the paranormals don’t agree about what to do with your sister. Her existence creates questions and choices that no one wants to face, and instead of looking at it as an opportunity they’re looking at it as a danger. It may be stupid, but it is what it is. Don’t you think Airlees would support Charlotte if it were up to them? But it’s not just up to them. That’s not how it works. There’s too much hate and fear on the part of other paranormals.”

  Ricky nodded. “I understand that. On the playground there’s this girl. She’s really good at soccer and she wants to play with the boys. None of the other girls want to play and they probably aren’t good enough, but this one girl is and everyone is so mean to her. The girls are mean to her for doing something they can’t and the guys don’t want to get beaten by a girl.”

  “Yeah,” said Vital, smiling. “Your sister’s just like the only girl who wants to play soccer.”

  Ricky nodded, and I smiled gratefully at Vital. It wasn’t the best analogy, but Ricky needed to put what was happening in terms he could understand.

  “I don’t even like soccer,” he muttered.

  After a little more discussion, Ricky decided he wanted some food, and the vampire assisting Lanca offered to take him to the kitchen. I felt sure this butler didn’t want to leave Lanca, but if I had a queen who was glaring at me the way Lanca was glaring at her butler, I’d have left too.

  Once they were gone, the rest of us kept trading stories and news

  “What’s going on with the resistance?” I asked. “Goffer and Caid? The alleged adults in this world?”

  Lanca smiled thinly. “Caid tried to make a deal with Malle, but of course she didn’t stick to her end of the bargain. Now Caid is backtracking, trying to win back all the support he lost when he was shown to be on speaking terms with the villain Cynthia Malle.”

  “Goffer?” Sip asked.

  Lanca tapped her hand against her mug. “He’s another matter entirely. He and Mound have teamed up to start broadcasting slogans like ‘Not Another Paranormal Death.’ They’re blaming everyone but themselves and Caid - no surprise there - but at least they’re mounting an attack. Mound has always believed that fighting was the answer, and I don’t think anyone on the council likes being shown up by a bunch of college students.”

  “So, who are they blaming?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.

  “Mainly the Sign of Six,” said Lanca. “They believe Sip is running it. Not like she’s made that a secret. But I’m pretty sure they want to arrest her for it.”

  “So, the same discord among the paranormals that has always pulled us apart is still doing so?” I said.

  “Not exactly,” said Lanca. “We used to be pulled apart along the lines of paranormal type. Now it seems to be more along age and ideology lines. The mere fact that Sip and I are here in the same room respecting each other is progress on that front.”

  She had a point. Caid was a fallen angel and Mound was a pixie. Normally the fallen angels got along well with all types - something about their otherworldly and healing nature - and the pixies didn’t get alone with anyone.

  But I didn’t like that Goffer was now in charge. I didn’t know anything about Caid’s cousin except that he was hard-driving and relentless. If we were on the same side I would consider that a good thing, but at this point I just couldn’t believe that he was someone who would support elementals in the end. I had a very bad feeling that he would rather tear me down and throw me to the Nocturns. In fact, I felt sure he would.

  “I cannot risk leaving Dunne ai Dorn,” said Lanca. “so I need you and Sip to go to Vampire Locke. I want all the information I can get, and I want my crown. Vital will be going with you.”

  After I got over being stunned at the idea, we talked it through and made a tentative plan. By the time we had finished, all I could do was to sigh. I wondered how long we could keep up the fight if all we did was go from battle to battle - losing every one.

  Chapter Two

  I wondered if Astra could sustain a demon attack, and I wondered if I had hidden the Mirror well enough. But I didn’t really want to dwell on it since there was nothing I could do about it at the moment.

  “Maybe we should go back to Public ourselves,” said Lough. “We don’t really have anything to do here.”

  “Whatever we do about that,” said Sip “we’ve got to help Lanca get what she needs out of Locke first. But what about Ricky? What’s he going to do while we go on this little quest?”

  I shrugged. “Right now, right here is the safest place for him to be. Lanca’s powers are stronger on Rapier territory, and if you remember, the demons attacked at a time when they knew she wasn’t there. No one wants to go up against the Blood Queen face-to-face, even if she isn’t at her throne right now.”

  “I’d like Ricky to stay here,” said Lough. “The more testosterone the better.”

  “You don’t like hanging out with girls?”

  “I don’t like not understanding or ever being backed up. More manly men are needed.”

  “You and Ricky . . . never mind,” said Sip, shaking her head in bemusement.

  Lough shrugged.

  Everyone loved Ricky and wanted to take care of him, and I knew that seeing me so distraught about the attack on Ricky had upset Sip and Lough. I felt bad about it, but I was all the more grateful that they had gone with me. Now I just had to open the wooden box with the Key of Light and combine the parts of the crown. I would then officially have to be given a place on the council. Elementals had been thought to be extinct, and therefore irrelevant to the council, but now it was clear that we weren’t, and I wanted to have a say again. I was nearly a college graduate and I had been through enough in the last three and a half years to justify demanding - and being given - my rightful, my father’s rightful, place.

  “I want to fight,” said Ricky, coming into the room looking a little ridiculous in the shirt he was wearing. It was obviously one of Lough’s, and way too big for him.

  “You’re too young,” I said. I sounded harsh, even to my own ears, but the thought of Ricky going up against the Nocturns terrified me like nothing else did.

  Ricky’s gray eyes, a mirror of my own, clouded with anger.

  “You can’t keep me out of this,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air. “You’ve done that for long enough! My whole world is gone!” His lower lip trembled and so did my heart. His dad, or rather the man he thought was his father, had just been murdered. Our mom had died years ago, and now Ricky was finding out that, at a most basic level, magic was real, and at another level that supernatural powers were scary.

  “We are in a battle for good and evil, and you want me to sit on the sidelines,” he nearly yelled.

  I looked away. “You’re a child,” I said. “You’re too young and you haven’t been trained.”

  “So train me,” he begged. “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it, but just let me do something”

  “Ricky,” I said in frustration, “I don’t even know what to do myself. It’s not like there’s a plan. I was supposed to graduate from college this spring! Instead, I have thousands of magical creatures trying to kill me!”

  I was not going to let Ricky risk himself, totally untrained as he was.

  Sip and I exchanged looks. All we had done since we arrived at Dunne Ai Dorn was discuss our next move. Now we were waiting for Lanca to ask us for a favor, and Ricky felt left out.

  “You can’t
do this to me,” he said, his voice high-pitched. “You aren’t my mother. Carl didn’t die to save me so that I could sit here and do nothing.”

  “Carl didn’t die so that you could go get yourself killed,” I shot back. “How could you put your life at risk after his sacrifice?”

  I knew it was the wrong thing to say. The hurt and angry tears that appeared in my brother’s eyes confirmed that quite clearly, as did his silent departure from the room.

  Almost as soon as Ricky had gone, there was a soft tap on the door and Lanca and Vital came in. Lanca rolled her eyes, a gesture that seemed to have become a habit since we had last seen her. “Sorry for keeping you up,” she said. “I know you must be exhausted. But we’ve been isolated from each other that it feels like we should review everything we can, together, while we have the chance.”

  She sat down in my plain chair, looking exhausted. It didn’t seem fit for a queen, but Lanca didn’t like a fuss.

  Vital stood at her side, always protecting.

  We chatted a bit, but soon it was clear that we had to get down to the business of darkness, and I finally started us off.

  “Let’s review,” I said. “The cat Bartholem is with Duchess Leonie at Public. Bartholem is probably the only paranormal at Public the demons can’t kill. Paranormal animals are notoriously difficult in all respects, and death not the least. Duchess Leonie is also notoriously difficult, so the two are well-suited.”

  My friends grinned at that, having met Dacer’s formidable mother. It wasn’t hard to believe that darkness didn’t want to go up against her. Despite our fondness, though, I was sure Bartholem missed Lisabelle. When you’re a creature that likes love but not attention, having an owner who gives the first only grudgingly and the second surreptitiously is all the better.

  Once the laughter died down I continued.

  “Since winter break had started when the attack came, we can be sure that most of the students were no longer on campus.” I swallowed, wondering where Dobrov was. “The Key of Light was hidden on campus under Cynthia Malle’s old offices. I need it to open a box of my mother’s, which I’m pretty sure contains half the crown of the Elementals.”

  “Wait,” Lanca held up her hand. “Come again?”

  One of the things I hadn’t filled Lanca and Vital in on was my success in discovering more about my family history. Now if someone could only tell me how my father had died, my information would be tolerably complete. In the meantime, I took this opportunity to fill in the blanks for Lanca and Vital.

  I told them the story, trying to gloss over the bit where I was technically an elemental princess and my mother had the elemental crown hidden in our basement. They listened in stunned silence.

  At the end Lanca nodded. “It doesn’t surprise me,” she said, seeing my questioning look.

  “I already have the other half of the crown,” I continued. “It was hidden in the basement of Carl’s house. Dobrov took the Key of Light away safely, I’m pretty sure, but I have no idea where he had put it after that. I’m reasonably sure he didn’t give it to Malle or the Nocturns, but beyond that I have no idea.

  “Public was overrun by demons right after Cynthia Malle was assured that Oliva and President Caid didn’t have the Key. Apparently that’s the adult way of pretending to do something while actually doing nothing. Now Public and Vampire Locke, the two strongholds of paranormals, are in the hands of the Nocturns. We are without safety, and the land is boiling dark.”

  One bright spot for me, of course, was that Ricky was with me now, a small ray of hope in an otherwise grim outlook. He had nearly been killed by demons, but Lisabelle had saved him, and then us, but I didn’t say that to Lanca and Vital. Lisabelle had since gone back to the Darkness Premier, who I personally thought was Ms. Vale, Daisy and Dobrov’s mother. But I hadn’t said that out loud to anyone. I had also been surprised all along that Cynthia Malle would let anyone boss her around, especially someone like Ms. Vale, who always needed others to do her dirty work.

  “In conclusion,” said Sip, “currently there’s a lot to keep track of.”

  We all nodded in agreement. There were so many moving parts to the situation now that I wasn’t sure where to go next.

  The biggest trouble was that none of us could think who Cynthia Malle would allow to give her orders. Each theory we came up as the hours passed felt more fantastical than the one that preceded it, until my head was spinning.

  “I’m not even sure knowing will help us,” I said to a roomful of my friends and allies.

  I did wonder whether I was so obsessed with this question not so much because it would help us if we knew who the Darkness Premier was, but more because I just didn’t like secrets. For a second I had wondered if it could be Mrs. Swan, but surely it wasn’t. I felt reasonably sure that Mrs. Swan had been murdered long ago. Otherwise, why would she have left Astra?

  “I still think it’s Zervos,” said Sip. “Evil git.”

  “Don’t you mean Evil Vampire Git?” Vital grinned.

  Sip shrugged. “He’s nasty, and I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s a vampire.”

  “Dacer is sure it isn’t Zervos,” said Lanca, “and I don’t think it is either. I think it’s someone more powerful, with more to lose if darkness doesn’t overrun us.”

  “It’s Zervos,” said Sip. “I’d bet my favorite teapot.”

  “That means she’s serious,” said Lough.

  “Who do you think it is?” I asked the dream giver.

  “I think it’s someone we don’t know yet,” said Lough. “There are many powerful vampires and even a few darkness mages I’ve never met. For a while I thought it was President Caid, but he seems more like a pawn in an ugly game than a real killer. Besides, there’s his friendship with Dacer to think of. I can’t believe any of Dacer’s friends are capable of ruling darkness.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Lanca. “We’ll know soon enough no matter what. Once we do, we’ll wonder why we cared. Let’s not give the Premier more of our attention than he or she already has.”

  We all agreed to that, but we still weren’t finished.

  “The next bit of review we have to do,” I said, “is about the paranormal objects.” I paused, but since no one else seemed ready to open this part of the discussion, I continued. “As it happens, I have either possession or knowledge of most of the important magical objects in the paranormal world.” I started to tick them off my fingers. “Lisabelle wears the Black Ring. It is the first ring of darkness and it binds her to the Nocturns. I have Alixar, an elemental mask that allows me to fly. Unlike all the other objects, I have it with me. If I had known I wouldn’t be returning to Astra I would certainly have packed differently.”

  “You and me both,” Sip muttered.

  “Next, I gave Dobrov Validification the Key of Light, which at the time seemed like a good idea, but because I haven’t seen him since then, it has turned into the worst idea since Sip and Lisabelle became roommates. But at least I can’t take credit for that one.”

  Now it was Lanca’s turn to smile.

  I continued, trying to remember everything. “Lisabelle gave Ricky a note, which he in turn gave to me, saying that Risper had failed to retrieve the Globe White from the Eriksons, and that it’s now in the hands of darkness. We had suspected as much, since we hadn’t heard of Elam in months.” I no longer felt bad about blowing Risper’s cover as the great thief. We were a long way past that.

  “There’s been no word on what happened to Risper, but I have a bad feeling that if Lisabelle was mentioning the subject, then the news isn’t good.”

  Lanca nodded agreement, and Vital went further. “I’m amazed by the amount of knowledge you’re in possession of,” he said, with a smile of appreciation. “You rival darkness.”

  “How I got to be so lucky is anyone’s guess. Sip would call it a brand of stubbornness that I’d be better off without,” I said. I gave Sip a wink, and she just shook her head.

  “How do you know all of this about Risper?” Vital asked, not to be deflected.

  “Risper was a bounty hunter, and he’d been assigned to find the Objects on the Wheel. He was also the famous thief known as Elam, but only a select few, including my friends and me, knew his secret.”